Two polls out in May and August note a significant movement in the American public's identifical with pro-life positions and views.
A newly released Pew Research Center Poll found:
For most of the last two decades, a clear majority of Americans has supported the right to abortion. A new poll, though, suggests that support for abortion may have declined, with the public almost evenly divided over the issue.
The apparent shift, which contradicts some other recent polls, appears in a poll by the Pew Research Center released on Thursday. A 2008 poll by Pew researchers had found that those in favor of keeping abortion legal outnumbered opponents, 54 percent to 40 percent. In the new Pew poll, the gap has narrowed: 47 percent of those surveyed said abortion should be legal in all or most cases, and 45 percent said it should be illegal in all or most cases — a difference within the poll’s margin of sampling error.
The reason for the shift is? President Obama in the opinion of the Pew researchers.
The new survey did not find the reasons for the shift in opinion. But Pew researchers pointed out that the shift has occurred since the election of President Obama, a Democrat who supports abortion rights but has often spoken about the need to reduce the number of abortions. New York Times/CBS News polls, as well as others, found no such shift after Bill Clinton — also a Democrat who supports abortion rights — took office. Pew has no comparable data on the issue dating back that far.
Add in a Gallup poll and the shift is even more striking. Gallup found a significant shift in the number of people who identify themselves as pro-life v. pro-choice. And 60% of respondents believe abortion should be either illegal under all circumstances or legal under a few circumstances versus 37% who believe it should be legal under all circumstances or legal under many circumstances. Up from 57% to 41% in May of 2008.
A new Gallup Poll, conducted May 7-10, finds 51% of Americans calling themselves "pro-life" on the issue of abortion and 42% "pro-choice." This is the first time a majority of U.S. adults have identified themselves as pro-life since Gallup began asking this question in 1995.
The new results, obtained from Gallup's annual Values and Beliefs survey, represent a significant shift from a year ago, when 50% were pro-choice and 44% pro-life. Prior to now, the highest percentage identifying as pro-life was 46%, in both August 2001 and May 2002.
The May 2009 survey documents comparable changes in public views about the legality of abortion. In answer to a question providing three options for the extent to which abortion should be legal, about as many Americans now say the procedure should be illegal in all circumstances (23%) as say it should be legal under any circumstances (22%). This contrasts with the last four years, when Gallup found a strong tilt of public attitudes in favor of unrestricted abortion.
Though I think Obama's policies are awful in regards to abortion, I guess we can thank him for his "help" in moving overall public sentiment in the pro-life direction.
3 comments:
As usual opinion over facts.
You might state that Obama is the most pro abortion president in history. But since Abortion was leagal until the 1900 you are once again wrong.
this is fact.
criminalization movement accelerated during the 1860s, and by 1900 abortion was largely illegal in every state. Some states did include provisions allowing for abortion in limited circumstances, generally to protect the woman's life or pregnancies due to rape or incest. Abortions continued to occur, however, and increasingly became readily available.
Then roe vs wade happened.
You can continue to say the world is flat but it doesn't make it so.
You can say it again and again, and louder and louder, it will not make you right.
Was God really "pro-life"?
" . . . and the people lamented because the Lord had smitten many of the people with a great slaughter." ..........I Samuel 6:19
"Happy shall he be who takes your little ones and dashes them against the rock!" ..........Psalms 137:9
"Then they (the Israelites) utterly destroyed all in the city, both men and women, young and old, sheep and asses, with the edge of the sword."
..........Joshua 6:21
"Samar'ia shall bear her guilt, because she has rebelled against her God; they shall fall by the sword, their little ones shall be dashed in pieces, and their pregnant women ripped open." ..........Hosea 13:16
"...Men'ahem sacked Tappuah and all who were in it and its territory from Tirzah on; because they did not open it to him, therefore he sacked it, and ripped up all the women in it who were with child." ..........2 Kings 15:16
"Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling..." (God speaking through Samuel). ...........1 Samuel 15:3
"And he (Elisha) went up from thence unto Bethel: and as he was going up by the way, there came forth little children out of the city, and mocked him, and said unto him, Go up, thou bald head; go up, thou bald head.
And he turned back, and looked on them, and cursed them in the name of the Lord. And there came forth two she bears out of the wood, and tare forty and two children of them." ..........2 Kings 2:23
If one reads the bible literally, certain scriptures come to light which will lead you to the inescapable conclusion that Jesus held to the same beliefs as modern Pro-Choice advocates.
We begin with the alleged words of Moses, claimed to have been given to him by Yahweh.
"If men struggle with each other and strike a woman with child so that she has a miscarriage, yet there is no further injury, he shall surely be fined as the woman's husband may demand of him, and he shall pay as the judges decide. But if there is any further injury, then you shall appoint as a penalty life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth." Ex. 21:22-25 [From the New American Standard Bible {NASB}, considered by scholars to be the most accurate available].
This is one of the Laws of Moses, given to him by God. What is this law saying, exactly? It says that if a fetus dies and is expelled from a woman's body as the result of being struck by a man, then the man who struck her is fined a certain amount of money, which he must pay to the husband. But, and here is the important part, if the woman dies, then the man who struck her shall be put to death (life for life).
Therefore, according to the bible, a fetus is not a human life. The implication is clear and unarguable. Indeed, Jewish Law states that life begins at birth. Where did "Jewish Law" come from? From Moses. Where did Moses get his law? From God.
What was Jesus' position on the laws given by Moses? Jesus said: "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass away from the law, till all things be accomplished." Matthew 5:17-18. Jesus says that the laws of Moses shall not be excused or ignored while the earth exists.
Furthermore, in Matthew chapter 17, Jesus is seen speaking to Old Testament figures Moses and Elijah, whose figures appear before him. Moses... the man who said that a fetus is not a human life, who ordered the death of a man for picking up sticks on the Sabbath Day, and the one who commanded Joshua to enter the Promised Land and leave no one alive: not one man, woman, child or baby.
Jesus gives an absolute, unqualified endorsement of the teachings of Moses. "If you believe Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. But since you do not believe what he wrote, how are you going to believe what I say?" John 5:45.
Therefore, Jesus agrees with Moses that life does not begin at conception, but at birth, and a fetus is not equal to a human life. According to the bible, Jesus would not consider the termination of a pregnancy to be murder.
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